RMT members vote to accept pay deal and end their rail strikes until at least Spring 2024

Members of the RMT union agreed to an offer from 14 train companies

1 Dec 2023| News

Members of the RMT have voted to accept a pay deal from the Rail Delivery Group (RDG), ending their involvement in a long-running series of strikes. The deal includes a backdated pay rise of 5% for 2022-23 as well as job security guarantees. Full details of the vote can be found here.

It means that the union’s members will no longer be involved in industrial action until at least the spring of next year. The RMT’s agreement with train companies ends an 18-month dispute over pay, job security and conditions, but talks over future pay deals and working practices still remain.

However, train drivers represented by Aslef will still strike.

Aslef members are to take part in a “rolling programme” of walkouts between 2 and 8 December, with different train companies affected on each day. Drivers will also refuse to work any overtime from 1 to 9 December.

General secretary of the RMT Mick Lynch said:

“Our members have spoken in huge numbers to accept this unconditional pay offer and no compulsory redundancies until the end of 2024. I want to congratulate them on their steadfastness in this long industrial campaign.

We will be negotiating further with the train operators over reforms they want to see. And we will never shy away from vigorously defending our members terms and conditions, now or in the future.

This campaign shows that sustained strike action and unity gets results and our members should be proud of the role they have played in securing this deal.”

Aslef’s general secretary, Mick Whelan, said the union was “determined to win this dispute… and get a significant pay rise for train drivers who have not had an increase since 2019 while the cost of living, in that time, has soared.”

“We are going on strike again, not to inconvenience passengers but to express our disgust at the intransigence of this government, and the bad faith shown by the private companies which employ us.”